Lucent to create new data unit

Lucent Technologies will form a new division to market advanced data communications equipment and software to carrier customers of all types.

The Lucent data networking unit will group new and existing switching, transmission and software designed for carrier data backbones, especially Internet Protocol and other packet-switched networks, under a single marketing organization, said Gerald Butters, president-North America of Lucent.

The company is expected to announce the reorganization internally this week.

The move is Lucent's most aggressive yet to position itself against suppliers such as Cisco Systems, Bay Networks, 3Com and other data networking companies, which have been targeting their data communications gear at carriers the past few years and now stand to reap a windfall as Internet business intensifies.

Butters disclosed plans for the new division during an interview with Telephony at the CTIA Wireless '97 show last week.

Despite new suppliers' success in the LEC market, the window of opportunity is far from closed, Butters said, because most still need to do the major buildouts to accommodate exploding Internet and corporate intranet traffic.

Equipment models were not specified, but the data networking division is expected to handle much of the data switching equipment that Lucent sells, in addition to new products that Bell Labs produces. Bell Labs has been aggressively pursuing opportunities in Internet software over the past year.

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